Adventitious

//ˌæd.vənˈtɪʃ.əs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    From an external source; not innate or inherent, foreign.
  2. 2
    Accidental, additional, appearing casually.

    "The discovery of the art of making pottery was probably in all cases adventitious, the clay being first used for some other purpose."

  3. 3
    Not congenital; acquired.
  4. 4
    Developing in an unusual place or from an unusual source.

    "The Velloziaceae have evolved a woody stem which is covered with a layer of adventitious roots mingled with the fibres of the old leaf sheaths;"

Adjective
  1. 1
    associated by chance and not an integral part wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
accidental;accessoryaccidentalaccidentaryacquired

Example

More examples

"Adventitious roots are those which do not appear in the usual place on a plant."

Etymology

From Medieval Latin adventītius (“coming from abroad, extraneous”), a corruption of Latin adventīcius (“foreign, strange, accidental”), from adventus (“arrival, coming, approach, advent”) + -īcius (suffix forming adjectives), from adveniō (“to arrive”) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.